A Tenth of Time
by Yurushi-chan
Summary: Time has always been a vicious thing. It is untamed and it's knowledge well hidden. Harry hadn't known that there would be a price to go back, but it was worth it. After all what was one life... in compared to the many? A time travel fic


**A Tenth of Time**

**By Yurushi-chan**

**Prologue: Like an Hourglass**

**AN:** Ok yes I know I've started another story... don't worry I haven't abandoned my other works I just couldn't get this idea out of my head. lol Enjoy

* * *

It looked quite a bit like a time turner he had to admit, although truthfully, he had always thought that a time turner looked more like an hourglass, and so that meant that this too looked quite a bit like an hour glass. It was big of course, but it had more then an hours worth of sand to hold after all. The silver casing that held the glass was covered in runes and the circle band that allowed it to turn was made of a heavy bronze that had been dipped in so many potions that it was tinged green.

Harry stared in wonder at the object on the table before him. He had finally done it. He had finally found a way to fix things. He looked up at his last two friends. During the war with Voldemort he had lost all his loved ones but these two. Unfortunately even they had not escaped unscathed. Neville was blind now, a curse that had set him on fire had destroyed his eyes and sockets, not even magic could help him see again. And Hermoine...dear Hermione had taken a curse for Ron, who died anyways not but a minute later when he was mauled by a werewolf. In some ways Harry wondered if Ron had gotten the better end, at least he had died quickly whilst Hermione suffered for nearly an hour under the blood boiling curse. The result had been permanent pain. Sure the effects could be weakened by potions but the longer she took them the more her body craved them. Her addictions were something she hated and the pain just made it worse. He supposed that he was lucky she wasn't insane, though it was a close thing, and in any case Harry had to stop her from taking her own life twice.

_'I could save them.' _he thought to himself as he closed his eyes in guilt for what they had lost. The faces of all who had died came to him in the darkness of his lowered eyelids. _'I could save all of them.'_

"Harry are you sure you want to do this?" Neville's voice brought him out of his morbid thoughts. He opened his eyes again and looked at his friend as Hermione made a sound of disapproval in the back of her throat.

"This is beyond dangerous you know." the witch snapped irritably. The constant pain had shortened her temper and patience considerably over the past couple of years. "You realize you could rip apart the very fabric of time?" she started to pace and Harry watched in silence. "More then that though, There is a reason that the time turners weren't used often you know... you could end up not being born at all, or make a worse Voldemort then before...there's even the possibility that..." she trialed off, looking at him out of the corner of her eye as she paused in her pacing.

"That what?" Harry asked warily. She didn't bother to hide it from him, and for that he was thankful.

"The paradox theory..." she said quietly. "You could be the cause of all this in the first place." He winced but did not let the idea weaken his resolve.

"If it's meant to be, then so be it." he said evenly. "I didn't spend two years with the Unspeakable's for nothing Mione."

"Can this...thing take us with you?" Neville asked after a moment of silence. Harry sighed.

"According to what I've studied the Deci-hyalus will barely be able handle taking me." he answered quietly. An almost mourning silence followed his words but a few minutes into it Hermione let out an annoyed huff.

"Well... If you won't be talked out of it, and we can't go with you, at least let us help you prepare, wouldn't want you to do something stupid would we?" her voice was resigned as she folded her arms across her chest. Harry just smiled, he knew he could count on them.

Even with the Deci-hyalus in his possession (albeit illegally) it was a good two weeks before he was ready. He couldn't bring much with them, and he was positive that anything magical could interfere with the objects innate magic and in turn what the over-sized time turner was meant to do. So that meant he had to leave his wand, and invisibility cloak behind. He was sort of sad that he would be leaving the two deathly Hallows behind but he supposed that in this way no one could "defeat" him and actually make use of the elder wand. He buried them both in the forbidden forest in hopes that they would never be found and used again.

He decided in the end that the clothes on his back would be efficient enough and that anything else could become a problem later should some one realize that it was not from this time. Initially Harry had also wanted to bring some galleons, he hadn't relished the idea of being stranded and unable to take care of himself. Unfortunately there was a chance that the gold would be caught as 'duplicates' goblins were crafty creatures after all. It was a chance that Harry could not afford to take. No one could know that he was from the future, as it was he would be attempting to keep himself as unnoticed as possible. It would be an uphill battle of course since he technically didn't exist but he had bribed Quite a few goblins into getting forged papers to help with that problem. At the very least goblins could be trusted so long as there was money on the line.

The plan they came up with was not one that he would have thought up himself. It was simple of course and some how he was convinced that it would work. He would go back to a time before Tom Riddle had even heard of Hogwarts. Once in a comfortable position he would then adopt the child. They had briefly entertained the idea of just killing him and thus preventing all chances of becoming Voldemort in the first place but Harry knew he wouldn't be able to follow through. It was one thing to fight full grown wizards after your life, it was entirely another to murder a defenseless child in cold blood. So they stuck with the idea of adoption. Hermione had a theory after all. She thought that if Tom Riddle had been given parental guidance and care that he wouldn't have turned out so dark. Harry had argued of course that he hadn't exactly had parental guidance and he was just fine.

"But it could have been a very near thing." Hermione growled as she poked Harry in the chest. "After all, you had friends and support after you entered the wizarding world, you had people to protect. Can we really say the same thing for Riddle?" And with that the discussion was closed.

* * *

When the two weeks were over and everything was planed the three made their way to their chosen place. Harry would travel to the past two blocks away from the orphanage that had once been the home of Tom Marvolo Riddle. This way he would be able to check on the child before setting things up to adopt him. He stood in a dingy alley looking one last time at his friends. They had already said their goodbyes and wished each other the best they wouldn't be meeting each other again for many years after all, and even then only Harry would remember. His throat tightened and he swallowed compulsively as he gave them one last nod of farewell.

He held the time piece before him, his hands shaking as he made the first turn. The object grew heavy in his arms as he held it but he did not stop. He didn't even give the sand a chance to reach the bottom as he turned it again…and again…and again until the sixth and last turn. He paid attention to nothing but the Deci-hyalus to his amazement it seemed to grow in size and weight with each flip. On it's final spin he watched fervently as the sand fell down finally reaching the bottom and working quickly towards filling it.

Finally the last grain fell and there was a bright flash of light, momentarily blinding him, and the sound of glass shattering. The strength of the light caused him to go momentarily blind and he had to blink more then a few times before he could even partial see again. He paid little mind to the white dots impeding his vision as he realized that he no longer held the Deci-hyalus. His hands ached and stung and when he could see a little better he saw that the time piece had…exploded for lack of a better word, though really little was left beyond the bits of glass and sand littering the concrete. He sighed some what resentfully. He knew that there had been a chance of that happening of course but he was still sorry to see years of work destroyed. He supposed it worked though for his friends were no where in sight.

He looked down at himself, mainly to check for injury and froze. The floor was much to close… and when he looked at his hands he realized that they were much too small. What in the world? '_Well_...' he thought a bit frantically. '_This can't be good._'


End file.
